Index Archive

06 November 2017

Paradise Papers Revealed MoS Jayant Sinha’s links with Omidyar in Appleby files
D.Light Design Inc was founded in 2006 in San Francisco, California and has a subsidiary of the same name in Cayman Islands.

Jayant Sinha joined Omidyar Network in September 2009 and resigned in December 2013. Omidyar Network invested in D.Light Design which took a loan of USD 3 million through its Cayman Islands subsidiary from an investor based in the Netherlands – Appleby records mention a loan agreement dated December 31, 2012.

Jayant Sinha was Director at D.Light Design when these decisions were taken.

Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyse economic and social change. Omidyar’s Indian investments include Quickr, Akshara Foundation, Anudip Foundation, Aspiring Minds, HealthKart.

Omidyar Network invested in D. Light Design which took a loan of $3 mn through its Cayman Islands subsidiary. Records show Sinha served as Director of D. Light Design founded in 2006 in San Francisco.

Minister of State at the Centre, Jayant Sinha worked with Omidyar Network as its Managing Director in India. Omidyar Network invested in a US company D. Light Design which has a subsidiary in Cayman Islands in the Caribbean Sea.

Records of offshore legal firm Appleby show Sinha served as Director of D. Light Design — he did not mention this in his declaration to the Election Commission when he contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2014, nor to the Lok Sabha Secretariat or the Prime Minister’s Office as a Minister of State in 2016.

Appleby records document an “Action by Unanimous Written Consent of the Board of Directors of D. Light Design Inc that “adopted and approved” a “resolution” in December 2012 “to procure through its wholly-owned subsidiary D. Light Design (Cayman), a secured loan in the aggregate principal amount of up to USD 3,000,000 from Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium II B.V. consisting of two separate USD 1,500,000 disbursements.” In this document, Jayant Sinha is mentioned as one of six signatories.